Happy New Year!!

Wishing you all a happy and safe New Year's Eve and a wonderful start to 2010!

Ryker's Lame Christmas Present

Ryker received his Christmas present yesterday. And, boy was it lame.

You ask what it is?

It was a biannual trip to the veterinarian! Woohooo!

He was due for some vaccinations, but I also needed to go to get his tooth checked out. As some of you may have seen on facebook, Ryker decided he wanted to eat through the fence again while Joe and I were gone at a Christmas presentation. In his escape attempt, he chipped off a large chunck of his upper right canine. I was NOT a happy momma...many tears...many, many tears.

So, the doc checked him out. Said his tooth looked like it was ok so far, just something we have to watch and see to make sure it doesn't get infected or he does more damage to it since it there isn't much there to take much more. =( Poor pupster.

We also chatted about the reason behind his crazy behavior, and after chatting a bit and going over Ryker's history (including the weird seizure thing he had sever months ago), we decided that we would try a medicine to help with his separation anxiety. A few dogs in the study suffered seizures, so this was a concern. But we both agreed that what he goes through daily is not that much better.

So, after a costly little visit including the vaccines, heartworm, and new medicine we left and I rewarded my little dog with a nice visit to the park.

I would like to ask you all to pray for little Ryker as we start this new medicine and hope for good results and good health!

Oh, and don't worry...we have some treats for Ryker's stocking! =)

O'Christmas Party - Oh, What a Great Time!

Last night, we celebrated the Christmas season with our second annual O'Christmas Party!

After lots of cleaning and cooking, Joe and I got to enjoy the best part! Our family and friends.

We had a great time feasting and talking. This year we also had quite the entertainment with four kids under 3! They all behaved wonderfully and charmed everyone!

Thank you all to our wonderful friends, we do feel blessed! And if you weren't here, don't worry, we still love you too!

Wishing all of you a happy Christmas time with your family and friends!

Frustrations in the Ease of Home Delivery

It's Christmas time.

That means for most of us that we are dabbling in the trend of online shopping. Oh, it sounds so promising. Search, find, click, save, ship. You can find bargains online, true, and sometime score the occassional free shipping too if you do it right.

Sounds so great...

THEN comes the Dance of the Delivery Services.

You don't know if it's coming FedEx, UPS or USPS. For some reason, some will be left on the door step, some require signatures, some get hung up in customs. And of course if you're not there when those dudes come, you gotta start tracking them down before they take your package back ever so rudely!

Why can you not schedule when you get delivered to. And why do they think someone will always be home on a Tuesday at 2 p.m. to sign for something?

Ugh, what a lovely little holiday tradition.

But it saves us time, right?

Right?

Is this thing on?

Oh well...Merry Shipping

Beatles Mania -- in Spanx!

I had a glimpse of what it must be like for pop stars and their crazed fans. Young girls crowding together just to get a glimpse of Paul or John. The screaming, the cheering, the clapping, the sheer amount of people.

This was a Christmas gift from Lydia.

She so innocently gave me a cookbook, but what came along next was, well, read for yourself...

You see, this wasn't just your run of the mill Betty Crocker cookbook. No, this was the first ever, first edition The Pioneer Woman cookbook.

The Pioneer Woman is a wonderful 'little' blog I read almost daily. She's a self-proclaimed accidental country girl who found herself living on a family-run cattle ranch in Oklahoma with her personal Marlboro Man and 4 punks of their own.

She writes of their ranch lives, cows, silly dogs, family, photography, real-people cooking, home schooling and just fun things. I enjoy it...and well, it seems so do A LOT of other people.
As part of the release of her first cookbook, her publishers have sent her on a book tour that PW herself has deemed the "Griswold (Drummond) Family Book Trip." And while winging their way across the country, they decided to stop in at a Dallas Borders.And that's where we went!

Lyd and I put the puppy out in the cold, bundled up and headed over around 5 p.m. to get the lay of the land before she showed up at 7 p.m. for the signing. We were doing so good. All early and everything. We went to the store, asked around and received 2 pink wrist bands, and were informed we'd be called by color groups. Awesome! Let's go eat.

We hit up a great pizza place right down the way and enjoyed a personal favorite of mine, pepperoni and black olive! So, after chatting and finishing up we headed back over, thought we might grab a coffee and see what we had to see.

What we had to see were LOTS and LOTS of ladies, babies, a few stray husbands and grandads...THIS STORE WAS PACKED!!!
Oh Lordy! What have we gotten into.

Around 6:30 they started calling color groups to line up! What, you mean we don't get to hear her talk or anything? NOPE!

There were 3 groups in front of us. Each consisting of about 100 people we were told. WHAT!? And there were at least 3 groups behind us that we knew about!! So on the shy side, there were 7 hundred crazy people in that store that night!

So, we began our wait. We were standing for quite a while till we decided that was just stupid. So we sat, and waited and waited. We were rewarded with a small treat seeing Ree, PW herself, and her two cute girls released from their holding sell in the back of the store.
After that...we waited...and waited.

Lyd and I talked, enjoyed some coffees and started meeting the people around us. Niccole and Jen were two cute friends who had come together. Sydney was in front of them and later joined by her sister Sarah...and their very tired and over stimulated children. There was a very kind grandpa behind me. And these were our friend for the next 4 HOURS!
Over the next 4-plus hours:
- We found Religion. See, right there...we were camped out here for most of our time. The line did NOT move for at least two hours...maybe God was teaching us patience -- in the religion section.- We learned names, names of children, proper cloth diaper care, birthing philosophies.
(I tuned out on several occasions to save my sanity.)
- Lyd and I looked at author names and tried to come up with good baby names. Somehow Erasmus and Attilla were nixed by my good friend.
- We took turns going to the bathroom.
- We got our coffee/hot chocolate and a delightful apple tart.
- I went with Jen and Niccole to cheat and get the PW girls to sign our books so we could insure getting a t-shirt.
(Those country kids just weren't ready for our wily city ways. Just kidding, they were delightful, gracious and having way too much fun not sitting in a line.)
- We almost had a riot on hand when a woman, a Plano principle of some sort, behind us almost lost it over more yellows getting in line before us. She didn't like the Borders employee's explanation that they got their arm bands first so they could do that. Really, don't you teach this stuff in school lady? Calm down! It's ok!
- We were bombarded with children up WAY past their bed time, given coke and not completely supervised. Ugh. Take deep breaths. It's ok. But really, isn't that what dads or baby sitters are for?
When we finally did start moving, we started moving at a good pace. Around 10:45 we were in site of the table. We felt so proud. We felt so accomplished.

It was almost our turn. I handed my book over, complete with my name post-it so she'd spell it right. We waited. We met, we said it was so nice to meet you. A girl came back, crowded in and asked another question...that's fine. But then the grandpa came up before we got our picture. NOOOO. We waited this long! We're getting a picture!!!

So, I politely asked if he could wait a sec, he did (he's a nice grandpa), the Borders guy snapped a pic...we said goodbye.
That was it! Our 2-second brush with fame!

Perhaps not quite what we were expecting, but it was definitely an experience we will both never forget.

We drove home giddy and a little drunk with exhaustion. I loaded up my pal with a Dr Pepper and said good bye. I came inside to my nice warm house knowing I have a great friend, a great husband for letting me do things like this, a signed cookbook, a t-shirt and a silly story to tell!

Off to pick a recipe!


**The Spanx refers to a comment Ree makes about herself on her many public appearances.

Adventures of No, No, Bad Dog - The Thanksgiving Edition

Hello dear readers,

It is I, No, No, Bad Dog returning for another enjoyable installment of my latest trials and tribulations.

As you all are aware of last week we celebrated a delectable holiday called Thanksgiving. I will refer to this as the Feast of the Big Bird!

My parents made the silly decision to leave me to visit Leanna's folks in Houston. I am not allowed to go, something about allergies and fencing not up to puppy code. So, for my first night of alone-ness, they left me at Doggie's Wonderland.

Oh, you'd think I'd have a great time frolicking and romping with 30-plus dogs my size also left over the Feast of the Big Bird. Truth is, you'd be right -- BUT WE'RE NOT GOING TO TELL THE PARENTS THAT...GOT IT!?

I was picked up the next day by my aunt, Sarah, and you know what...they didn't even give her my leash! Said I didn't have one or something (we picked it up yesterday, my mom takes care of me!). So she has to get me to her car on a busy road with dogs barking and no leash...thank you, Sarah!

And so began my stay with the grandfolks and the cousin pups, Baily and Ursa. We had a good time. On a few occasions I had to go back to stay at my house while they ran errands because their new fence isn't quite Ryker-tested just yet. I was super excited the first time they dropped me off thinking Mom and Dad were home. THEY WERE NOT! The next time, I was not so excited, so when they showed up to pick me back up, I leaped into the car and told them to take me home and LOVE ME!!

Now, here's where it gets good peeps! On one such day when we were all at home, the grandfolks went inside to clean up a bit from all of our adventures in their massive yard! When they returned a while later, I was NOWHERE in site! NOWHERE!

The panic set in. They surveyed the yard. They saw no holes. No boards missing. They called, and nothing! Where did I go!!?? (teehee, if only they knew.)

Ursa and Bailey just set there looking at them giving away nothing of my secret. They decided that I must have scaled the fence and made a break for home. So they both jumped in their cars and headed over...only no pupster.

After an hour or two of searching the neighborhoods in two cars and talking to my dad, they decided to come home and search one more time there. My dad said if they were home and the garage door was open, I wouldn't leave. He was right...but not in the obvious way.

Holly checked upstairs and the attic -- nothing. Jim decided to try calling again...and that's where he heard my sad little whine.

He called again and finally realized I was under the deck in the back yard. Not just with my head stuck, butt in the air, but UNDER THE DECK. IN THE MIDDLE.

-- Here's the deck!--

See, I was on an adventure and I just couldn't manage to turn around and get back out, so I just stayed. Jim rescued me by unscrewing a few boards, and out I popped. I was fine, really, just a little stuck!

Really, what was all the fuss about?

Between the grandparents and dad, they decided not to tell mom. But someone let it slip out, and my story was told. I didn't get into too much trouble, but they did tell me not to do it again.

I'll do my best, but sometimes it's just hard!

Stay tuned for my next adventure! Who knows what can happen over Christmas, right!?